Happy birthday, Space Shuttle astronaut Duane Carey!

Duane Carey, born April 30, 1957 in St. Paul, Minnesota, went into space aboard Space Shuttle Columbia (STS-109) as pilot in March 2002.  It was the fourth mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope.  He spent almost 11 days in space.

Columbia (STS-109) launched 2002

STS-109 crew (L-R): Michael Massimino, Richard Linnehan, Duane Carey, Scott Altman, Nancy Currie, John Grunsfeld, James Newman

Mission patch

Space Shuttle Columbia (STS-109), launched March 1, 2002, was the fourth mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope.  Its crew consisted of Commander Scott Altman, Pilot Duane Carey, John Grunsfeld, Nancy Currie, Richard Linnehan, James Newman, and Michael Massimino.

Five EVAs were conducted during the mission.  Grunsfeld and Linnehan performed 3 EVAs and Newman and Massimino performed two.  The crew returned to Earth March 12.

It was the last successful flight of Columbia before its disaster upon re-entry in 2003.

Happy birthday, Space Shuttle astronaut John Grunsfeld!

John Grunsfeld, born October 10, 1958 in Chicago, Illinois, is a veteran of five space shuttle flights.

His first mission was aboard Endeavour (STS-67) as mission specialist in March 1995.  The mission carried an experiment sponsored by the Australian Space Office.

His second mission was aboard Atlantis (STS-81) as mission specialist in January 1997 to the space station Mir.  During the mission, Grunsfeld made a call to the NPR show Car Talk, which was hosted by two fellow graduates of MIT.

His third flight was aboard Discovery (STS-103) as mission specialist in December 1999. It was a servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope.  Grunsfeld conducted two EVAs with fellow astronaut Steven Smith.

His fourth mission was aboard Columbia (STS-109) as mission specialist in March 2002.  It was another (the fourth) servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope.  Grunsfeld conducted three EVAs with fellow astronaut Richard Linnehan.

His fifth and final mission was aboard Atlantis (STS-125) as mission specialist in May 2009.  It was the fifth and final servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope.  Grunsfeld conducted three EVAs with fellow astronaut Andrew Feustel.

His total EVA time is 58 hours, 30 minutes.  His time in space is 58 days, 15 hours, 3 minutes.

Happy birthday, Space Shuttle astronaut Richard Linnehan!

Richard Linnehan, born September 19, 1957 in Lowell, Massachusetts, is a veteran of four space shuttle missions.  After receiving a BS in Animal Sciences and a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine, he completed an internship in exotic animal medicine at the Baltimore Zoo! 

Selected as an astronaut by NASA in 1992, his first flight was aboard Columbia (STS-78) as mission specialist June-July 1996.  It was a preparation flight for the International Space Station.

Linnehan's second flight was aboard Columbia (STS-90) as mission specialist April-May 1998.  The Mammalian Development Team, which I'm sure Linnehan was a part of, experienced an unexpectedly high mortality rate of neonatal rats.  Therefore, they had to reprioritize their experiments.

His third flight was aboard Columbia (STS-109) as mission specialist in March 2002.  It was a servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope and the last flight of Columbia before it disintegrated the following February upon re-entry.

Linnehan's fourth and final flight was aboard Endeavour (STS-123) as mission specialist in March 2008 to the International Space Station.  He performed three EVAs, totaling 21 hours.

Happy birthday, Space Shuttle astronaut Mike Massimino!

Mike Massimino, born August 19, 1962 in New York, is a veteran of two space shuttle flights and has appeared on the Big Bang Theory as himself!  How cool is that?!

His first mission was on Columbia (STS-109) as mission specialist in March 2002.  It was the fourth servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope.  He conducted two EVAs for a total of 14 hours and 46 minutes.

His second and final flight was on Atlantis (STS-125) as mission specialist in May 2009.  During the mission, Massimino was the first person to 'tweet' from space.

Since then he has appeared on television as himself, most notably The Big Bang Theory.

Columbia (STS-93) launched 1999

STS-93 crew (L-R): Eileen Collins, Steven Hawley, Jeffrey Ashby, Michel Tognini, Catherine Coleman.

STS-93 mission patch

Space Shuttle Columbia blasted off July 23, 1999 with the first female commander of any shuttle mission.  Its crew consisted of Commander Eileen Collins, Pilot Jeffrey Ashby, Michel Tognini (Centre National d'etudes Spatiales, CNES), Steven Hawley and Catherine Coleman.

The mission's primary objective was to deploy the Chandra X-ray Observatory, the most sophisticated of its kind ever built.

After this flight, Columbia went out of service for upgrading and did not fly again until 2002 (STS-109).

The crew returned to Earth July 28.

Atlantis (STS-125) launched 2009

STS-125 crew (L-R): Mike Massimino, Michael Good, Gregory C. Johnson, Scott Altman, Megan McArthur,  John Grunsfeld and Andrew Feustel

Mission patch

Space Shuttle Atlantis (STS-125), launched May 11, 2009, was the fifth and final mission to the Hubble Space Telescope. Its crew consisted of Commander Scott Altman, Pilot Greg C. Johnson, Michael Good, Megan McArthur, John Grunsfeld, Mike Massimino and Andrew Feustel.

Three of the astronauts had already worked on the Hubble Telescope on previous missions.  Scott Altman, Mike Massimino and John Grunsfeld were all on STS-109, the fourth servicing mission.  Grunsfeld had also traveled to Hubble on STS-103. 

On Day 7, the crew woke up to New York State of Mind by Billy Joel, chosen by Mike Massimino.

Happy birthday, Space Shuttle astronaut Nancy Curie-Gregg!

Nancy Jane (Sherlock) Currie-Gregg, born December 29, 1958 in Wilmington, Delaware, is a veteran of four Space Shuttle flights.  She is a colonel in the U.S. Army.

Her first flight was on Endeavour (STS-57) as mission specialist June-July 1993. She operated the shuttle's robotic arm.

Her second flight was on Discovery (STS-70) in July 1995 as mission specialist.  She conducted biomedical and remote sensing experiments.

She traveled on Endeavour (STS-88) December 1998 as part of the International Space Station assembly.  She operated the robotic arm during space walks.

Col. Currie-Gregg's final mission was on Columbia (STS-109) in March 2002, to service the Hubble Space Telescope, again operating the shuttle's robotic arm.

Happy birthday, Space Shuttle astronaut James Newman!

James Hansen Newman, born October 16, 1956 in what is now the Federated States of Micronesia, is a veteran of four space shuttle flights.  After obtaining his doctoral degree in physics from Rice University, he completed an additional year of post-doc work and began his astronaut training in July 1990.

His first space shuttle mission was aboard Discovery (STS-51) in September 1993. Although manay scientific experiements were carried out, the main focus of the mission was repairing the Hubble Telescope.  Newman and Carl Walz performed a 7-hour EVA as part of the Hubble repair.

His second flight was STS-69, aboard Endeavour in September 1995.  It was the 100th successful manned NASA flights, not counting X-15s. 

Newman's third mission was on Endeavour again (STS-88) in December 1998.  Newman performed 3 EVAs with Jerry Ross completing the Unity module which is the first U.S.-built component of the International Space Station. 

His final flight was on Columbia (STS-109) in March 2002.  He participated in 2 of 5 spacewalks on this mission to do additional repairs to the Hubble Space Telescope.